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OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS

▬▬

SOPHOCLES

Antigone

Oedipus the King

Electra

▬▬

Translated by

H. D. F. KITTO

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by

EDITH HALL

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Reissued 2008

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ISBN 978-0-19-953717-4

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

SEVERAL people have helped me in the preparation of this edition. John Betts, Nicholas Hammond, Christopher Robinson, Christopher Rowe, George Rowell, and Glynne Wickham all helped me to track down the history of the genesis and first performances of the translations. My students at Reading made it quite clear to me what they would wish to find in an edited translation of Sophocles. I would also like to record my heartfelt thanks to Linda Holt, Fiona Macintosh, Oliver Taplin, and especially Richard Poynder, for invaluable assistance of other kinds.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ANTIGONE, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta

ISMENE, her sister

CREON, King of Thebes, brother of Jocasta

HAEMON, his son

A GUARD

TEIRESIAS, a Seer

MESSENGER

EURYDICE, wife to Creon

CHORUS of Theban elders

Guards, Attendants, etc.

Scene: Thebes, before the royal palace

ANTIGONE1

Enter, from the palace, ANTIGONE and ISMENE

ANTIGONE. Ismene, my own sister, dear Ismene,

How many miseries our father caused!

And is there one of them that does not fall

On us while yet we live? Unhappiness,

Calamity, disgrace, dishonor—which

Of these have you and I not known? And now

Again: there is the order which they say

Brave Creon* has proclaimed to all the city.

You understand? or do you not yet know

What outrage threatens one of thosewelove? 10

ISMENE. Of them, Antigone, I have not heard

Good news or bad—nothing, since we two sisters

Were robbed of our two brothers on one day

When each destroyed the other. During the night

The enemy* has fled: so much I know,

But nothing more, either for grief or joy.

ANTIGONE. I knew it; therefore I have brought you

here,

Outside the doors, to tell you secretly.

ISMENE. What is it? Some dark shadow is upon you. 20

ANTIGONE. Our brother’s burial. —Creon has ordained

Honor for one, dishonor for the other.

Eteocles, they say, has been entombed

With every solemn rite and ceremony

To do him honor in the world below;

But as for Polyneices, Creon has ordered

That none shall bury him* or mourn for him;

He must be left to lie unwept, unburied,

Verse lines are numbered according to the Greek text {see Introduction, p. xxxv).

ANTIGONE

For hungry birds of prey to swoop and feast

On his poor body. So he has decreed, 30

Our noble Creon, to all the citizens:

To you, to me. To me! And he is coming

To make it public here, that no one may

Be left in ignorance; nor does he hold it

Of little moment: he who disobeys

In any detail shall be put to death

By public stoning* in the streets of Thebes.

So it is now for you to show if you

Are worthy, or unworthy, of your birth.

ISMENE. Omypoor sister! If it has come to this

What can I do, either to help or hinder? 40

ANTIGONE. Wil you join hands with me and share my

task?

ISMENE. What dangerous enterprise have you in mind?

ANTIGONE. Will you join me in taking up the body?

ISMENE. What? Would you bury him, against the law?

ANTIGONE. No one shall say I failed him! I will bury

My brother – and yours too, if you will not.

ISMENE. You reckless girl! When Creon has forbidden?

ANTIGONE. He has no right to keep me from my own!

ISMENE. Think of our father, dear Antigone,

And how we saw him die, hated and scorned, 50

When his own hands had blinded his own eyes

Because of sins which he himself disclosed;

And how his mother-wife, two names in one,

Knotted a rope, and so destroyed herself.*

And, last of all, upon a single day

Our brothers fought each other to the death

And shed upon the ground the blood that joined

them.

Now you and I are left, alone; and think:

If we defy the King’s prerogative

ANTIGONE

And break the law, our death will be more shameful 60

Even than theirs. Remember too that we

Are women, not made to fight with men. Since they

Who rule us now are stronger far than we,

In this and worse than this we must obey them.

Therefore, beseeching pardon from the dead,*

Since what I do is done on hard compulsion,

I yield to those who have authority;

For useless meddling has no sense at all.

ANTIGONE. I will not urge you. Even if you should wish

To give your help I would not take it now. 70

Your choice is made. But I shall bury him.

And if I haveto die for this pure crime,

I am content, for I shall rest beside him;

His love will answer mine. I have to please

The dead far longer than I need to please

The living; with them, I have to dwell for ever.

But you, if so you choose, you may dishonor

The sacred laws* that Heaven holds in honor.

ISMENE. I do them no dishonor, but to act

Against the city’s will I am too weak.

ANTIGONE. Make that your pretext! I will go and heap 80

The earth upon the brother whom I love.

ISMENE. You reckless girl! I tremble for your life.

ANTIGONE. Look to yourself and do not fear for me.

ISMENE. At least let no one hear of it, but keep

Your purpose secret, and so too will I.

ANTIGONE. Go and denounce me! I shall hate you more

If you keep silent and do not proclaim it.

ISMENE. Your heart is hot upon a wintry work!

ANTIGONE. I know I please whom most I ought to

please.

ISMENE. But can you do it? It is impossible! 90

ANTIGONE. When I can do no more, then I will stop.

ANTIGONE

ISMENE. But why attempt a hopeless task at all?

ANTIGONE. O stop, or I shall hate you! He will hate

You too, for ever, justly. Let me be,

Me and my folly! I will face the danger

That so dismays you, for it cannot be

So dreadful as to die a coward’s death.

ISMENE. Then go and do it, if you must. It is

Blind folly-but those who love you love you dearly.

[Exeunt severally

ANTIGONE

Enter a GUARD

GUARD. My lord: I cannot say that I am come

All out of breath with running. More than once

I stopped and thought and turned round in my path

And started to go back. My mind had much

To say to me. One time it said ‘You fool!

Why do you go to certain punishment?’

Another time ‘What? Standing still, you wretch?

You’ll smart for it, if Creon comes to hear

From someone else.’ And so I went along 230

Debating with myself, not swift nor sure.

This way, a short road soon becomes a long one.

At last this was the verdict: I must come

And tell you. It may be worse than nothing; still,

I’ll tell you. I can suffer nothing more

Than what is in my fate. There is my comfort!

CREON. And what is this that makes you so

despondent?

GUARD. First for myself: I did not see it done,

I do not know who did it. Plainly then,

I cannot rightly come to any harm. 240

CREON. You are a cautious fellow, building up

This barricade. You bring unpleasant news?

GUARD. I do, and peril makes a man pause long.

CREON. O, won’t you tell your story and be gone?

GUARD. Then, here it is. The body: someone has

Just buried it, and gone away. He sprinkled

Dry dust on it, with all the sacred rites.

CREON. What? Buried it? What man has so defied me?

ANTIGONE

GUARD. Here is the one who did the deed, this girl;

We caught her burying him. – But where is Creon?

CHORUS. He comes, just as you need him, from the

palace.

Enter CREON, attended

CREON. How? What occasion makes my coming

timely?

ANTIGONE

GUARD. Sir, against nothing should a man take oath,

For second thoughts belie him. Under your threats 390

That lashed me like a hailstorm, I’d have said

I would not quickly have come here again;

But joy that comes beyond our dearest hope

Surpasses all in magnitude. So I

Return, though I had sworn I never would,

Bringing this girl detected in the act

Of honoring the body. This time no lot

Was cast; the windfall is my very own.

And so, my lord, do as you please: take her

Yourself, examine her, cross-question her.

I claim the right of free and final quittance. 400

CREON. Why do you bring this girl? Where was she

taken?

GUARD. In burying the body. That is all.

CREON. You know what you are saying? Do you mean

it?

GUARD. I saw her giving burial to the corpse

You had forbidden. Is that plain and clear?

CREON. How did you see and take her so red-handed?

GUARD. It was like this; When we had reached the

place,

Those dreadful threats of yours upon our heads,

We swept aside each grain of dust that hid

The clammy body, leaving it quite bare, 410

And sat down on a hill, to the windward side

That so we might avoid the smell of it.

We kept sharp look-out; each man roundly cursed

His neighbor, if he should neglect his duty.

So the time passed, until the blazing sun

Reached his mid-course and burned us with his heat.

Then, suddenly, a whirlwind came from heaven

And raised a storm of dust, which blotted out

The earth and sky; the air was filled with sand

And leaves ripped from the trees. We closed our eyes

ANTIGONE

And bore this visitation* as we could. 420

At last it ended; then we saw the girl.

She raised a bitter cry, as will a bird

Returning to its nest and finding it ·

Despoiled, a cradle empty of its young.

So, when she saw the body bare, she raised

A cry of anguish mixed with imprecations

Laid upon those who did it; then at once

Brought handfuls of dry dust, and raised aloft

A shapely vase of bronze, and three times poured 430

The funeral libation for the dead.

We rushed upon her swiftly, seized our prey,

And charged her both with this offence and that.*

She faced us calmly; she did not disown

The double crime. How glad I was! – and yet

How sorry too; it is a painful thing

To bring a friend to ruin. Still, for me,

My own escape comes before everything. 440

CREON. You there, who keep your eyes fixed on the

ground,

Do you admit this, or do you deny it?

ANTIGONE. No, I do not deny it. I admit it.

CREON [to Guard]. Then you may go; go where you

like. You have

Been fully cleared of that grave accusation.

[Exit GUARD

You: tell me briefly – I want no long speech:

Did you not know that this had been forbidden?

ANTIGONE. Of course I knew. There was a

proclamation.

CREON. And so you dared to disobey the law?

ANTIGONE. It was not Zeus who published this decree, 450

Nor have the Powers who rule among the dead*

Imposed such laws as this upon mankind;

Nor could I think that a decree of yours –

ANTIGONE

A man – could override the laws of Heaven*

Unwritten and unchanging. Not of today

Or yesterday is their authority;

They are eternal; no man saw their birth.

Was I to stand before the gods’ tribunal

For disobeying them, because I feared

A man? I knew that I should have to die, 460

Even without your edict; if I die

Before my time, why then, I count it gain;

To one who lives as I do, ringed about

With countless miseries, why, death is welcome.

For me to meet this doom is little grief;

But when my mother’s son lay dead, had I

Neglected him and left him there unburied,

That would have caused me grief; this causes none.

And if you think it folly, then perhaps

I am accused of folly by the fool. 470

CHORUS. The daughter shows her father’s temper–

fierce,

Defiant; she will not yield to any storm.

CREON. But it is those that are most obstinate

Suffer the greatest fall; the hardest iron,

Most fiercely tempered in the fire, that is

Most often snapped and splintered. I have seen

The wildest horses tamed, and only by

The tiny bit. There is no room for pride

In one who is a slave! This girl already

Had fully learned the art of insolence 480

When she transgressed the laws that I established;

And now to that she adds a second outrage–

To boast of what she did, and laugh at us.

Now she would be the man, not I, if she

Defeated me and did not pay for it.

But though she be my niece, or closer still

Than all our family,* she shall not escape

The direst penalty; no, nor shall her sister:

I judge her guilty too; she played her part

In burying the body. Summon her. 490

ANTIGONE

Just now I saw her raving and distracted

Within the palace. So it often is:

Those who plan crime in secret are betrayed

Despite themselves; they show it in their faces.

But this is worst of all: to be convicted

And then to glorify the crime as virtue.

[Exeunt some GUARDS

ANTIGONE. Would you do more than simply take and

kill me?

CREON. I will have nothing more, and nothing less.

ANTIGONE. Then why delay? To me no word of yours

Is pleasing – God forbid it should be so! – 500

And everything in me displeases you.

Yet what could I have done to win renown

More glorious than giving burial

To my own brother? These men too would say it,

Except that terror cows them into silence.

A king has many a privilege: the greatest,

That he can say and do all that he will.

CREON. You are the only one in Thebes to think it!

ANTIGONE. These think as I do – but they dare not

speak.

CREON. Have you no shame, not to conform with

others? 510

ANTIGONE. To reverence a brother is no shame.

CREON. Was he no brother, he who died for Thebes?

ANTIGONE. One mother and one father gave them

birth.

CREON. Honoring the traitor, you dishonor him.*

ANTIGONE. He will not bear this testimony, in death.

CREON. Yes! if the traitor fare the same as he.

ANTIGONE. It was a brother, not a slave who died!

ANTIGONE

CREON. He died attacking Thebes; the other saved us.

ANTIGONE. Even so, the god of Death* demands these

rites.

CREON. The good demand more honor than the

wicked. 520

ANTIGONE. Who knows? In death they may be

reconciled.

CREON. Death does not make an enemy a friend!

ANTIGONE. Even so, I give both love, not share their

hatred.

CREON. Down then to Hell! Love there, if love you

must.

While I am living, no woman shall have rule.

ANTIGONE

HAEMON. Father, it is the gods who give us wisdom;

No gift of theirs more precious. I cannot say

That you are wrong, nor would I ever learn

That impudence, although perhaps, another

Might fairly say it. But it falls to me,

Being your son, to note what others say,

ANTIGONE

Or do, or censure in you, for your glance

Intimidates the common citizen; 690

He will not say, before your face, what might

Displease you; I can listen freely, how

The city mourns this girl. ‘No other woman’,

So they are saying, ‘so undeservedly

Has been condemned for such a glorious deed.

When her own brother had been slain in battle

She would not let his body lie unburied

To be devoured by dogs or birds of prey.

Is not this worthy of a crown of gold?’–

Such is the muttering that spreads everywhere. 700

Father, no greater treasure can I have

Than your prosperity; no son can find

A greater prize than his own father’s fame,

No father than his son’s. Therefore let not

This single thought possess you: only what

You say is right, and nothing else. The man

Who thinks that he alone is wise, that he

Is best in speech or counsel, such a man

Brought to the proof is found but emptiness.

There’s no disgrace, even if one is wise, 710

In learning more, and knowing when to yield.

See how the trees that grow beside a torrent

Preserve their branches, if they bend; the others,

Those that resist, are torn out, root and branch.

So too the captain of a ship; let him

Refuse to shorten sail, despite the storm–

He’ll end his voyage bottom uppermost.

No, let your anger cool, and be persuaded.

If one who is still young can speak with sense,

Then I would say that he does best who has 720

Most understanding; second best, the man

Who profits from the wisdom ofanother.

CHORUS. My lord, he has not spoken foolishly;

You each can learn some wisdom from the other.

CREON. What? men of our age go to school again

And take a lesson from a very boy?

ANTIGONE

HAEMON. If it is worth the taking. I am young,

But think what should be done, not of my age.

CREON. What should be done! To honor

disobedience! 730

HAEMON. I would not have you honor criminals.

CREON. And is this girl then not a criminal?

HAEMON. The city with a single voice denies it.

CREON. Must I give orders then by their permission?

HAEMON: If youth is folly, this is childishness.

CREON. Am I to rule for them, not for myself?

HAEMON. That is not government, but tyranny.

CREON. The king is lord and master of his city.

HAEMON. Then you had better rule a desert island!

CREON.T his man, it seems, is the ally of the woman. 740

HAEMON. If you’re the woman, yes! I fight for you.

CREON. Villain! Do you oppose your father’s will?

HAEMON. Only because you are opposing Justice.

CREON. When I regard my own prerogative?

HAEMON. Opposing God’s, you disregard your own.

CREON. Scoundrel, so to surrender to a woman!

HAEMON. But not to anything that brings me shame.

CREON. Your every word is in defense of her.

HAEMON. And me, and you – and of the gods below.

CREON. You shall not marry her this side the grave! 750

HAEMON. So, she must die—and will not die alone.

CREON. What? Threaten me? Are you so insolent?

HAEMON, It is no threat, if I reply to folly.

ANTIGONE

CREON. The fool would teach me sense! You’ll pay for

it.

HAEMON. I’d call you mad, if you were not my father.

CREON. I’ll hear no chatter from a woman’s plaything.

HAEMON. Would you have all the talk, and hear no

answer?

CREON. So?

I swear to God, you shall not bandy words

With me and not repent it! Bring her out,

That loathsome creature! I will have her killed 760

At once, before her bridegroom’s very eyes.

HAEMON. How can you think it? I will not see that,

Nor shall you ever see my face again.

Those friends of yours who can must tolerate

Your raging madness; I will not endure it.

[EXIT HAEMON

ANTIGONE

Enter ANTIGONE, under guard. [From this point up to line

987 everything is sung, except lines 883-928.]

CHORUS. I too, when I see this sight, cannot stay

Within bounds; I cannot keep back my tears

Which rise like a flood, For behold, they bring

Antigone here, on the journey that all

Must make, to the silence of Hades.*

Strophe 1

ANTIGONE. Behold me, O lords of my native city!

Now do I make my last journey;

Now do I see the last

Sun that ever I shall behold.

Never another! Death, that lulls 810

ANTIGONE

All to sleep takes me while I live

Down to the grim shore of Acheron.*

No wedding day can be

Mine, no hymn will be raised to honor

Marriage of mine; for I

Go to espouse the bridegroom, Death.

CHORUS. Yet a glorious death, and rich in fame

Is yours; you go to the silent tomb

Not smitten with wasting sickness, nor

Repaying a debt to the sharp-edged sword; 820

But alone among mortals* you go to the home

Of the dead while yet you are living.

ANTIGONE

CHORUS. Such loyalty is a holy thing.

Yet none that holds authority

Can brook disobedience, O my child.

Your self-willed pride has been your ruin.

ANTIGONE

Epode

ANTIGONE. Unwept, unwedded and unbefriended,

Alone, pitilessly used,

Now they drag me to death.

Never again, O thou Sun in the heavens,

May I look on thy holy radiance! 880

Such is my fate, and no one laments it;

No friend is here to mourn me.

CREON [speaks]. Enough of this! If tears and

lamentations

Could stave off death they would go on for ever.

Take her away at once, and wall her up

Inside a cavern, as I have commanded,

And leave her there, alone, in solitude.

Her home shall be her tomb; there she may live

Or die, as she may choose: my hands are clean;

But she shall live no more among the living. 890

ANTIGONE [speaks].O grave, my bridal-chamber,

everlasting

Prison within a rock: now I must go

To join my own, those many who have died

And whom Persephone,* has welcomed home;

And now to me, the last of all, so young,

Death comes, so cruelly. And yet I go

In the sure hope that you will welcome me,

Father, and you, my mother; you, my brother.*

For when you died* it was my hands that washed 900

And dressed you, laid you in your graves, and

poured

The last libations. Now, because to you,

Polyneices, I have given burial,

To me they give a recompense like this!

Yet what I did,* the wise will all approve.

For had I lost a son, or lost a husband,

Never would I have ventured such an act

Against the city’s will. And wherefore so?

My husband dead, I might have found another;

ANTIGONE

Another son from him, if I had lost 910

A son. But since my mother and my father

Have both gone to the grave, there can be none

Henceforth that I can ever call my brother.

It was for this I paid you such an honor,

Dear Polyneices, and in Creon’s eyes

Thus wantonly and gravely have offended.

So with rude hands he drags me to my death.

No chanted wedding-hymn, no bridal-joy,

No tender care of children can be mine;

But like an outcast, and without a friend,

They take me to the cavernous home of death. 920

What ordinance of the gods have I transgressed?

Why should I look to Heaven any more

For help, or seek an ally among men?

If this is what the gods approve, why then,

When I am dead I shall discern my fault;

If theirs the sin, may they endure a doom

No worse than mine, so wantonly inflicted!

CHORUS. Still from the same quarter the same wild

winds

Blow fiercely, and shake her stubborn soul. 930

CREON. And therefore, for this, these men shall have

cause,

Bitter cause, to lament their tardiness.

CHORUS. I fear these words bring us closer yet

To the verge of death.*

CREON. I have nothing to say, no comfort to give:

The sentence is passed, and the end is here.

ANTIGONE. O city of Thebes where my fathers dwelt,

O gods of our race,

Now at last their hands are upon me!

You princes of Thebes, O look upon me, 940

The last that remain of a line of kings!

How savagely impious men use me,

For keeping a law that is holy.

[Exit ANTIGONE, under guard. CREON remains